The megachurch pastor running for Senate — and the 'center' that built his flock

When Adam Hamilton founded a church in 1990, he held Sunday services in the chapel of a funeral home outside Kansas City. Thirty-six years later, he leads the largest United Methodist congregation in the country — roughly 24,000 members across nine locations in Kansas, Missouri and Ohio — and is running neck and neck against a Republican incumbent in a Kansas Senate race that no Democrat has won since 1932.

The race against Senator Roger Marshall has put a spotlight on the institution Hamilton built: a megachurch that has survived denominational schisms, a pandemic, and the culture wars by insisting its members commit to something its pastor calls the 'center' — a posture of deliberate civility toward people who disagree.

We try to listen to people on both sides and we try to find places where we can learn from each other, grow from each other and hold to this 'radical center' if you will.— Adam Hamilton, founder and senior pastor, Church of the Resurrection

After stepping away from the pulpit in May to run for office, Hamilton has said he intends to keep his role as senior pastor if he wins. His Republican opponent, Marshall, derides him as a 'megachurch C.E.O.' Hamilton's campaign does not use the word megachurch, though the church qualifies by any standard measure.

A former Republican who once weighed an independent bid, Hamilton has made the rising costs of health care, fuel and fertilizer central themes on the campaign trail. Drawing on scripture from memory, he has called voting 'an act of Christian discipleship.' Among Democrats seeking national office this cycle, he belongs to a small group of Protestant clergy or seminarians that includes James Talarico, the party's Senate nominee in Texas, and Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister running for Congress in Iowa.

It's one thing for Democrats to be open to a candidate like Adam Hamilton in Kansas. A candidate like Adam Hamilton will probably also be really useful in more obviously competitive states.— Michael Wear, founder and president, Center for Christianity and Public Life

The church Hamilton built was designed from the start to attract people who might otherwise never set foot in a pew. In the months before opening day, church leaders sent pamphlets to thousands of local households, describing what they envisioned as a 'place to be loved,' where people could serve those in need and seek God. Hamilton married his wife, LaVon, a week after graduating from high school and was 25 when he launched the church.

There's a lot of people out there who are intellectuals, who felt like so often the Christian faith they hear about is an anti-intellectual faith. That's not true for most Christians, but it is some of the most vocal Christians.— Adam Hamilton, founder and senior pastor, Church of the Resurrection

A 1,500-seat sanctuary welcomed the congregation in 1998, when the membership had grown large enough to require it. Within two more years, adult membership had surpassed 6,000. Today, the church's Leawood, Kansas headquarters sits in a suburb that has shifted rapidly from a Republican stronghold to a Democratic enclave — a transformation that has been pivotal in electing Democratic Governor Laura Kelly and in the 2022 statewide vote to preserve abortion rights in the Kansas Constitution.

Sustaining that growth required navigating charged issues without fracturing the congregation. Describing his own tradition, Hamilton has placed himself in both the Mainline Protestant camp — which tends toward theological liberalism and an emphasis on community service — and the evangelical one, with its stress on personal spiritual development and church growth. Abortion, homosexuality and the separation of church and state were among the subjects he took up in his first book, 'Confronting the Controversies.'

On LGBTQ inclusion, Hamilton has been outspoken in his criticism of Methodist rules barring LGBTQ people from serving in the clergy. His response to departures over such positions and other issues has been to hold the line on civility rather than theology.

Just statistically, more nonreligious and nominally religious people are Democrats and progressive. If they come to church and feel they're hearing a Republican rally, they're not coming back.— Adam Hamilton, founder and senior pastor, Church of the Resurrection

On abortion, Hamilton has been more measured. Before Kansas voters decided in 2022 whether to keep the state constitution's protection of abortion rights, the church held a town hall at which health care providers, a former state legislator and a federal judge — all women — laid out a range of perspectives. Hamilton described his own view as 'pro-life with a heavy heart' while making clear he would leave the voting decision to each individual.

The church's Campaign for Kindness — now in its third installment since 2020 — distributes yard signs bearing slogans like 'Love your neighbor,' 'Do Unto Others' and 'Kindness' in place of candidate names. Congregations around the country have joined the effort. The signs, in purple rather than partisan red or blue, have become a visible symbol of the church's civic posture.

We're trying to blanket Kansas City in love, compassion, understanding.— Doug Wyckoff, volunteer coordinator, Church of the Resurrection

The model stands in contrast to other congregations navigating the same polarization. Abundant Life Church in Lee's Summit, Missouri, drew attention after Lead Pastor Phil Hopper appeared from the pulpit to back candidates in a local school board race — a move that can technically put a church's tax-exempt status at risk, though the Kansas News Service notes the rule is seldom enforced.

Hamilton's political crossover is not without friction among his own potential voters. Erica Roger, a Democrat who lives in Johnson County — a populous area Donald Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2024 — said Hamilton's background as the head of a large church gave her pause. She said she planned to vote for him anyway, because her negative feelings about Marshall's tenure were stronger.

But I still go to the hospital, and I still go to hospices to sit with people while they're dying. I do it for me, because it helps my heart stay alive.— Adam Hamilton, candidate for U.S. Senate

Whether the congregation Hamilton built — and the political identity it embodies — can translate into a Senate victory will be tested on Election Day. A win would be the first by a Democrat in Kansas's Senate races since 1932, and would offer the Democratic Party a data point about the reach of religiously fluent candidates beyond the party's existing base.

Why it matters — Hamilton's Senate bid tests whether a Democrat who leads the country's largest United Methodist congregation can win in a state Republicans have held for nearly a century — and whether religiously fluent Democratic candidates can peel away voters beyond the party's existing base.

Reported by nytimes.com, dnyuz.com, christiancentury.org, klcjournal.com